1. Field Of The Disclosure
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for harnessing wind energy, and more specifically to wind turbines for producing electricity from wind energy.
2. Related Art
Typical horizontal axis wind turbines having multiple rotating blades are made to endure enormous destructive wind forces during operation. The wind forces may be created by wind conditions that vary from a no-wind condition to an extreme-wind condition. The rotating blades are generally designed such that the entire length of the blade is externally configured as an airfoil in cross-section since the airfoil shape of the rotor blade generally provides for a higher efficiency of performance.
However, because of the extremes in the variation of the wind conditions, the design considerations of the rotor blades must include a careful balancing of many factors. For example, the rotor blades must be constructed such that they are as lightweight as possible to reduce the strain on the tower. At the same time, however, consideration must be given to the possibility that the blades may be subject to resonance and harmonic vibration at their operating speeds. Moreover, the rotor blades need considerable strength to endure the buffeting of the winds and the stress they experience being constantly exposed to natural forces.
The horizontal axis wind turbines also suffer from several disadvantages due to their typically large-scale design. These concerns include not only the obscuring of the landscape with banks of rotating turbines, noise, and environmental safety, but that they are impractical for smaller, owner-controlled applications. Vertical axis turbines are generally much less efficient and exhibit frequent failures of the main top bearings due to the radial stress on the bearings. The blades also have to endure great shear forces from bottom to top due to the nature of wind shear.
As the use of wind turbines continues to present an environmentally friendly solution to help reduce the need for burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, what is needed is a wind turbine system that overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks.